Superman III Trivia
Trivia about Superman III. *In the opening sequence, the location used for downtown Metropolis is Calgary, Alberta, Canada. *Annette O'Toole who plays Lana Lang, plays Martha Kent in WB's TV series "Smallville" (2001). *The video game "played" by Ross Webster was created for the film and originally looked very life-like, so much so that the creators were asked to make it look more computer-like, so that the fact that it was actually a game would be more obvious to the audience. *The program Gus creates in the beginning that supposedly impossible is just a series of PRINT statements when Gus lists it. *Margot Kidder had less than five minutes of screen time in this film, with only twelve lines in total, after she expressed her disgust to the producers over the firing of Richard Donner from Superman II (1980). *Gene Hackman also expressed his disgust with Alexander and Ilya Salkind by refusing to be in this film. He would later be convinced to reprise his role as Lex Luthor in the fourth and final film, because Golan-Globus had bought the rights and the Salkinds had no connection. *Following the use of Lex Luthor in the previous two films, some consideration was given to using Brainiac in the third installment. *Enid Saunders plays a character named "Minnie Bannister", seen in one of the Smallville sequences. This is a very obscure in-joke on the part of Richard Lester, who has had a long association with the cast members of the BBC radio show "The Goon Show", where Minnie Bannister, voiced by Spike Milligan, was one of the recurring characters. *The original title was to be "Superman vs. Superman". The producers of Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) threatened a lawsuit over the similarity however, and refused to believe the Salkinds' explanation that it was intended as a play on the various "Superman vs..." comic stories and not Kramer vs. Kramer. Eventually Pierre Spengler suggested that "Superman III" would be a more sensible title anyway, and the issue was dropped. *When the villains are preparing to visit the site of the super-computer, Ross, Vera, and Lorelei use helicopter-like devices to float to the canyon floor. Gus prefers to ride his burro, stating, "I don't believe a man can fly!" - a reference to the tagline of the first movie in the series, "You'll believe a man can fly!" *The scene where Superman creates a diamond by squeezing a piece of coal in his hand is a reference to some earlier Superman stories from the comic books where he performed the same action. *According to the writers, the original choice to play Ross Webster was Alan Alda. They wanted an actor who could be ruthless without losing any charm. Executive producer Ilya Salkind said in the DVD commentary that his choice was Frank Langella. Langella later starred as Perry White in Superman Returns. *When it was first revealed to producers that Lana Lang would be a single mother, a comic book was quickly written explaining how Lana came to be in that situation. *The little boy who appears waiting by the photo-booth while Clark Kent changes into Superman was actually the same little boy who played baby Kal-El (Superman) in Superman: The Movie. *The scenes in which Superman straightens the leaning tower of Pisa and then leans it back in the end were originally planned to be shot for Superman II, as it was in Richard Donner's original script for the first sequel. The closing shots of Superman in space were lifted from Superman (1978) and also reused in Superman II and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. *The technique Richard Pryor's character uses to steal money from his company, where he collects very little money (in this case decimals of a cent) from other accounts and aggregates them in his personal account, is called "salami technique" in computer crime terminology. *Although this sequel was released two years after Superman II (1980), it had actually been four years since Christopher Reeve filmed the role - his work on the second movie was completed in 1979. *This marked the first time Christopher Reeve was given top billing in a Superman movie. For the first film he was behind Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman; for the second he was only behind Hackman. *According to Ilya Salkind, an earlier treatment of the script he wrote included the comic book villains, Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk teaming up, and Superman meeting his cousin, Supergirl, which would lead to the potential Supergirl spin-off. But Warner Bros. declined the treatment. *According to the producers' commentary on the Superman III: Deluxe Edition DVD, contrary to popular belief, this film was not a flop. While both critics and fans generally expressed disappointment with the third Superman movie, and the fact that its $60 million gross fell short of the previous two movies' $100 million+ box office business, Superman III still yielded an impressive profit; this in the wake of stiff competition during the summer of 1983, with Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi opening three weeks earlier, and Octopussy opening just ten days earlier. *The firefighters in the chemical plant were not actors. They were all real firefighters. *According to the Vulcan weather satellite, the chemical composition for the Kryptonite shown in Gus Gorman's (Richard Pryor's character) computer are: 15.08% Plutonium, 18.06% Tantalum, 27.71% Xenon, 24.02% Promethium, 10.62% Dialium, 3.94% Mercury, and 0.57% Unknown (Gorman replaced this with Tar). *Jennifer Jason Leigh was originally set to star as Lana Lang, but turned down the role because she was too young. *A routine of Richard Pryor's, often included in "best of" CDs is a skit called "Super N****r" about a black Superman who is disguised a janitor working for the Daily Planet. Category:Superman III Category:Trivia